The present disclosure relates generally to supply chain management, and, more particularly, to capacity management systems and methods using planning buckets with substantially identical bucket length.
In the supply of products, the supply chain performs the functions of material purchasing, transformation of materials into intermediate and finished products, and distribution of finished products to clients. Supply chain management has become important in meeting the goals of reduced inventory, increased productivity, and enhanced competitiveness. Manufacturing and distribution facilities have limited resources and capacity, hence, not every client request may be met. For example, some requests may be promised but unfulfilled, some clients may receive inadequate supply, and other requests may be rejected. Consequently, effective management of capacity in supply chain management, without excess capacity loss, has become an important aspect for a product supplier who needs to control manufacture or distribution.
In the supply chain, clients transmit demands to a supplier. The demand may include a request for a particular quantity of a device by a specific date. The supplier plans its internal or external manufacturing schedule according to these received demands, and allocates capacity for manufacturing products to satisfy each client. After receiving orders corresponding to demands from clients, the supplier starts to manufacture the products.
Conventionally, a planning approach divides a continuous planning horizon into discrete time buckets, such as months, and plans capacity for respective time buckets. For example, in FIG. 1, if a demand D for a device is specified in time bucket TB4 and a cycle time for the device is 2 time buckets, the planning bucket containing a capacity consumption point for the demand D falls in time bucket TB2, and a capacity C is consumed for the demand D.
Since bucket lengths vary from month to month, however, if two substantially identical demands are specified in different time buckets, the planning buckets must be determined according to corresponding bucket lengths, thereby causing irregular plan results. For example, FIG. 2A illustrates an example wherein the time buckets are determined according to calendar month, and each month (January through July) has a demand (D1˜D7) for a device having a 29-day cycle time. The corresponding capacity consumption points (CP1˜CP7) for respective demands are illustrated in FIG. 2B. Since the bucket length of February is 28 days, the capacity consumption point CP2 for demand D2 falls in January, and the specified capacity in January comprises capacity C1 for demand D1 and capacity C2 for demand D2 as shown in FIG. 2C. In the example, the plan result is irregular, and the same situation will occur as the cycle time is about multiples of 30 days (e.g., 29, 30, 31, 59, 60, 61, 89, 90, 91, etc). Expected capacity consumption, however, should be balanced and smooth for all planning buckets to facilitate effective long-term planning. The conventional mechanism, however, is unable to generate smooth capacity consumption results for capacity management.